Our July 8 column was about a $100 ticket Mislan got for parking too close to a fire hydrant on the east side of tiny St. Lawrence St. that she couldn’t see because it was hidden behind tall weeds.

She was spitting mad (who wouldn’t be?) and filed for a court date, planning to use photos of the hydrant and a copy of our column to fight the ticket.

And then a funny thing happened on the way to court.

Rob MacKay, a parking enforcement supervisor, sent us an email, asking if we could put him in touch with Mislan because, “I may be able to help her.”

Our heart skipped a beat. We have always believed a parking cop would ticket his own mother if she was a minute late.

We sent Mislan’s contact information to MacKay and kept our fingers crossed, wondering if it would go anywhere.

So we were delighted to get a note from Mislan last week, saying MacKay had just emailed her confirmation that the ticket was cancelled.

“I think this is a direct result of the attention you brought to the situation in your column,” said Mislan. “It is a happy ending for me not to have to fight this ticket in court.”

We weren’t able to speak to MacKay, but Bill Carter, a bylaw enforcement co-ordinator with parking enforcement, said they don’t mind helping people who end up with a ticket through no fault of their own.

“We do it out of a sense of fairness and consistency,” said Carter. “It seemed unreasonable and unfortunate.”

Front-line officers might not notice that weeds have obscured a hydrant, said Carter, because it happens a little at a time and they see it every day.

“As the weeds get taller, the officer who patrols that area might not realize that a driver might not be able to see it from their car,” he said.

We asked him if other drivers who got a ticket for parking in front of the same hydrant (east side of St. Lawrence) in the last week of June or first week of July might be extended the same mercy.

Carter said he’d see what he can do, so if anyone got a ticket for parking in front of a hydrant on St. Lawrence during the two weeks before July 8 and have filed for a court date, send us the details and we’ll pass it along.

What's broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. To contact us, go to thestar.com/thefixer or call us at 416-869-4823. To read our blog, go to thestar.blogs.com/thefixer . Follow us on Twitter @TOStarFixer.

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